.• 


OLD    NEW    ENGLAND 
HOUSES 


BY 

ALBERT  G.  ROBINSON 

AUTHOR   OF   "OLD   NEW  ENGLAND  DOORWAYS'' 


WITH    MANY    ILLUSTRATIONS 
FROM    THE    AUTHOR'S    UNIQUE    COLLECTION    OF    PHOTOGRAPHS 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S   SONS 
1920 


COPTRIGHT,  1920,  BY 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


Published  September.  1920 


THE   8CRIBNER   PRESS 


PLATES 

Concord,  Massachusetts— The  "Old  Manse."     (Frontispiece). 
Providence,  Rhode  Island — Ives  House,  1799. 
Providence,  Rhode  Island — Gammell  House,  1786. 

Lexington,  Massachusetts — The  house  in  which  Samuel  Adams  and 
John  Hancock  were  asleep  when  aroused  by  Paul  Revere. 

Ipswich,  Massachusetts — Brown  House. 

Ipswich,  Massachusetts — Whipple  House. 

Winchendon,  Massachusetts. 

Concord,  Massachusetts — The  Orchard  House,  Home  of  the  Alcotts. 

Monson,  Massachusetts. 

Newbury,  Massachusetts — Short  House,  1717. 

Andover,  Massachusetts — Abbott  House,  1685. 

Quincy,  Massachusetts — Dorothy  Q.  House. 

Chelmsford,  Massachusetts — Spaulding  House. 

Boxford,  Massachusetts. 

Lexington,  Massachusetts — Munroe  Tavern,  1695. 

Acushnet,  Massachusetts. 

Hadley,  Massachusetts — Dickinson  House. 

Dedham,  Massachusetts — Fairbanks  House,  1636. 

Salemji  Massachusetts — Ropes  House,  1719. 

Southwick,  Massachusetts. 

Salem,  Massachusetts — Dodge-Shreve  House,  1817. 

North  Woburn,  Massachusetts — Birthplace  of  Count  Rumford. 

Billerica,  Massachusetts — Manning  Manse,  1696. 

[v] 


20813^4 


PLATES 

Colrain,  Massachusetts. 

Shrewsbury,  Massachusetts — Judge  Artemas  Ward  House. 

Bedford,  Massachusetts. 

Ipswich,  Massachusetts — Caldwell  House,  High  Street,  before  1650. 

Deerfield,  Massachusetts. 

Portland,  Maine. 

Wiscasset,  Maine. 

Edgecomb,  Maine — Rufus  Sewall  House. 

Concord,  New  Hampshire. 

Nashua,  New  Hampshire — Woods  House,  1658. 

Stratford,  New  Hampshire. 

Norwich  Town,  Connecticut. 

Guilford,  Connecticut. 

Windsor,  Connecticut. 

Windsor,  Connecticut — Judge  Oliver  Ellsworth  House. 

East  Windsor  Hill,  Connecticut. 

Clinton,  Connecticut,  1789. 

Old  Mystic,  Connecticut. 

Litchfield,  Connecticut. 

Litchfield,  Connecticut — Tallmadge  House,  1775. 

Rocky  Hill,  Connecticut. 

South  Windham,  Connecticut. 

Southbury,  Connecticut,  1785. 

Hadlyme,  Connecticut. 

South  Lyme,  Connecticut. 

East  Lyme,  Connecticut. 

East  Lyme,  Connecticut. 

[vil 


PLATES 

South  Lyme,  Connecticut. 

Middletown,  Connecticut. 

Norwich  Town,  Connecticut. 

Nut  Plains,  Connecticut. 

Chelmsford,  Massachusetts. 

Middlesex  County,  Massachusetts. 

North  Woburn,  Massachusetts — Laommi  Baldwin  House. 

Hadley,  Massachusetts — Porter  House,  1713. 

Pembroke,  Massachusetts,  1766. 

Wells,  Maine. 

Danvers,  Massachusetts — Rebecca  Nourse  House,  1636,  front. 

Danvers,  Massachusetts — Rebecca  Nourse  House,  1636,  rear. 

Tyngsboro,  Massachusetts. 

Lincoln,  Massachusetts — Hartwell  House,  1639. 

Southampton,  Massachusetts. 

South  Windsor,  Connecticut. 

Westminster,  Massachusetts. 

Georgetown,  Massachusetts. 

Deerfield,  Massachusetts — Nims  House,  north  end  and  west  front. 

Deerfield,  Massachusetts — Nims  House,  rear  from  the  southeast. 

Deerfield,  Massachusetts — Allen  House,  north  end. 

Deerfield,  Massachusetts — Allen  House,  south  end. 

Deerfield,  Massachusetts — Samson-Frary  House,  west  front. 

Deerfield,  Massachusetts — Samson-Frary  House,  south  front. 

Ipswich,  Massachusetts — Emerson  House,  1648. 

Groton,  Massachusetts. 

Newbury,  Massachusetts — Tappan  House,  1697,  south  front. 

[vii] 


PLATES 

Newbury,  Massachusetts — Tappan  House,  1697,  west  end. 
Westport,  Massachusetts. 
Georgetown,  Massachusetts. 

Fryeburg,  Maine. 

• 
Stratford,  New  Hampshire. 

Lyme,  Connecticut. 

New  Bedford,  Massachusetts. 

South  Windsor,  Connecticut. 

Southampton,  Massachusetts. 

Madison,  Connecticut — East  front. 

Madison,  Connecticut — South  front. 

Woodbury,  Connecticut. 

Middlebury,  Connecticut. 

Niantic,  Connecticut — Lee  House,  west  end. 

Niantic,  Connecticut — Lee  House,  east  end. 

Essex,  Connecticut — South  end. 

Essex,  Connecticut — West  front. 

Byfield,  Massachusetts — Dummer  House,  1715. 

East  Windsor  Hill,  Connecticut. 

Southington,  Connecticut. 

Georgetown,  Massachusetts — Brockelbank  House,  1670. 


via 


OLD    NEW    ENGLAND 
HOUSES 


OLD    NEW    ENGLAND    HOUSES 


I 


homes  of  the  earliest  settlers  in  Xew 
England  were  log  huts  small  in  size  and 
rude  in  construction— 

"Of  such  materials  as  around, 
The  workman's  hand  had  readiest  found; 
Lopp'd  of  their  boughs,  their  hoar  trunks  bared, 
And  with  the  hatchet  rudely  squared." 

SCOTT,  Lady  of  the  Lake. 

The  chinks  between  the  logs,  due  to  the  uneven 
surfacing,  were  filled  with  clay  or  mud.  The  roofs 
were  thatch.  The  floor  was  the  little  section  of  the 
earth's  surface  enclosed  within  the  walls  or,  at  best, 
the  flat  side  of  split  logs,  rudely  dressed,  known  as 
puncheons.  Most  of  the  furniture  was  only  what 
the  occupant  could  fashion  with  axe  and  saw.  The 
fireplace,  as  a  writer  has  cleverly  described  it,  "sent 
half  the  smoke  into  the  apartment  and  half  the 
heat  up  the  chimney."  For  a  short  time  one  room, 
in  many  cases,  served  for  all  purposes.  These  simple 
structures  afforded  the  necessary  shelter,  but  the 

[3] 


OLD    NEW    ENGLAND    HOUSES 

New  England  colonists  were  not  of  a  class  content 
to  live  in  so  rude  a  manner.  Lumber,  both  hand- 
sawed  and  mill-sawed,  was  produced  soon  after 
their  arrival.  The  earliest  mill  of  which  I  find  record 
was  erected  in  the  vicinity  of  Portsmouth  in  1631 
by  a  man  named  Gibbons.  But  the  output  of  the 
little  mills  of  the  early  days  was  limited  in  quan- 
tity, and  a  number  of  generations  passed  before  the 
log  hut  disappeared.  As  the  pioneers  pushed  their 
way,  year  after  year,  into  the  interior,  northward 
and  westward,  they  built  in  western  Massachusetts, 
in  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  and  Vermont,  log  cabins 
such  as  were  built  in  an  earlier  day  in  the  coast 
settlements  and  along  the  valleys  of  the  larger  rivers. 
For  them,  as  for  the  first  settlers,  shelter  was  a  re- 
quirement second  only  to  food,  and  the  readiest 
means  of  meeting  the  necessity  was  the  cutting, 
hewing,  and  piling  of  logs  from  the  surrounding 
forest.  Even  after  the  operation  of  sawmills,  much 
of  the  heavier  framing  timber  was  hewn  from  logs. 
This  is  often  revealed  when  the  old  houses  are  torn 
down  or  altered. 

Several  houses  whose  erection  is  credibly  reported 
as  prior  to  1640  are  still  standing.  Some  are  one 
story  and  some  are  two  stories  in  height.  The 

[4] 


OLD    NEW    ENGLAND    HOUSES 

destruction  a  few  years  ago  of  the  old  house  in 
St.  Augustine  doubtless  leaves  some  ancient  New 
England  structure  as  "the  oldest  house  in  the 
United  States/'  It  is  perhaps  impossible  to  deter- 
mine which  one  of  the  several  claimants  is  rightfully 
entitled  to  the  distinction.  The  claim  has  been 
made  for  the  Fairbanks  house  in  Dedham,  Mass., 
a  part  of  which  was  built  in  1636.  The  genealogist 
of  the  Caldwell  family  claims  1633  as  the  date  of 
the  Caldwell  homestead  which  stands  on  High 
Street  in  Ipswich.  Some  have  claimed  1633  for 
the  old  Whipple  house  in  the  same  town.  Again, 
the  oldest  house  may  be  still  standing  with  no 
record  to  prove  its  antiquity.  Errors  in  the  mat- 
ter of  dates  are  frequent  enough.  A  date  quite 
impossible,  as  proven  by  the  architectural  type  or 
the  character  of  the  workmanship,  is  often  given, 
in  all  honesty,  by  the  occupant  of  a  house.  In 
some  instances  the  date  given  is  that  of  the  erec- 
tion of  a  more  modest  structure  that  has  given  place 
to  the  present  building  or  that  serves  as  an  ell  or 
extension  to  the  newer  part.  It  is  not  unusual  to 
find  a  really  old  house  with  an  older  structure  at- 
tached, the  date  of  all  being  given  as  that  of  the 
oldest  part. 

[51 


OLD    NEW    ENGLAND    HOUSES 

Year  by  year  the  number  of  these  old-time 
homes  lessens.  They  burn  down,  fall  down,  or  are 
torn  down.  Some  are  "improved"  by  the  addition 
of  a  veranda,  a  bay  window,  a  modern  door,  or  by 
the  substitution  of  large  window-panes  for  the  old 
diamond  panes  or  the  much  more  common  but  less 
ancient  six-by-eight  panes.  There  are  still  many 
of  the  real  "old-timers"  to  be  found,  but  more  and 
more,  from  year  to  year,  it  becomes  necessary  to 
hunt  for  them.  Some,  though  only  a  fraction  of 
them,  are  more  or  less  well  known,  and  have  been 
used  repeatedly  as  illustrations.  But  the  tendency  of 
illustrators  has  been  to  show  a  limited  number  of 
selected  "mansion  houses"  rather  than  the  homes 
in  which  a  far  greater  number  of  people  lived  their 
quiet  and  inconspicuous  lives.  In  the  selected  group 
are  the  stately  homes  in  Salem  and  in  Portsmouth, 
the  Lee  house  in  Marblehead,  the  Royall  house 
in  Medford,  the  Dummer  house  in  Byfield,  the 
"Lindens"  in  Danvers,  the  Longfellow  and  Lowell 
houses  in  Cambridge,  and  a  few  others  of  partic- 
ularly interesting  history  or  of  special  architectural 
merit.  In  another  group  of  selected  structures  ap- 
pear the  familiar  Fairbanks  house  in  Dedham,  the 
Frary  house  in  Deerfield,  the  Whipple  house  in 

[6] 


OLD    NEW    ENGLAND    HOUSES 

Ipswich,  the  Tallmadge  house  in  Litchfield,  the 
Wayside  Inn,  and  a  few  others.  All  of  these,  in 
both  groups,  are  excellent  for  the  purposes  for  which 
they  are  used,  but  they  present,  after  all,  only  a 
few  out  of  the  many  old  houses  that  still  remain 
widely  scattered  through  the  southern  half  of  New 
England. 

The  hunt  for  these  old  structures  resolves  itself 
into  a  somewhat  general  and  elastic  system,  a  loca- 
tion of  areas  in  which  the  hunt  is  likely  to  prove 
fruitful  or  otherwise.  Thus,  in  some  of  the  oldest 
settlements  little  remains  in  the  way  of  the  oldest 
architecture.  This  is  particularly  true  of  the  larger 
cities,  of  Boston,  Providence,  Newport,  Hartford, 
New  Haven,  and  Springfield.  On  the  sites  of  the 
homes  of  the  people  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
and  of  a  large  part  of  the  eighteenth,  stand  the  brick 
and  the  stone  piles  of  the  nineteenth  and  the 
twentieth  centuries.  The  old  has  given  place  to 
the  new.  In  the  vicinity  of  those  cities  there  is  a 
fair  hunting-field  although  "modern  improvement" 
has  in  many  instances  converted  charming  old 
houses  into  architectural  jumbles  seldom  pleasing 
and  often  little  short  of  offensive.  Very  much  the 
same  is  true  of  a  number  of  smaller  cities  such  as 


Northampton,  Holyoke,  New  London,  and  Haver- 
hill.  A  somewhat  larger  restriction  appears  in  the 
distinction  between  the  northern  and  southern  por- 
tions of  the  region.  Massachusetts,  Connecticut, 
and  Rhode  Island  had  a  long  start,  more  than  a 
hundred  years,  over  Vermont  and  all  except  a  small 
area  of  New  Hampshire  and  of  Maine.  It  was  not 
until  after  the  French  and  Indian  War,  finally 
terminated  by  the  Treaty  of  Paris  in  1763,  that 
more  than  a  mere  corner  of  those  States  was  safe 
for  settlers. 

On  the  other  hand,  certain  places  are  found  to 
be  of  notable  fruitfulness.  Connecticut  has  several 
such  centres,  including  Guilford,  Farmington,  Wind- 
sor, Litchfield,  and  Wethersfield.  Rhode  Island  has 
Warren,  Bristol,  Wickford,  and  others.  Massa- 
chusetts has  Concord  and  Lexington,  Ipswich,  Deer- 
field  and  Hadley,  and  a  few  more.  With  the  ex- 
ception of  Farmington  and  Litchfield,  in  both  of 
which  the  "mansion  house,"  or  "near  mansion 
house,"  type  is  prominent,  the  old-time  houses  in 
these  places  were  the  homes  of  those  of  compara- 
tively limited  but  still  comfortable  income.  It  is 
the  hunt  for  houses  of  that  class  that  really  affords 
the  greatest  pleasure  and  interest.  The  hunter 

[81 


OLD    NEW    ENGLAND    HOUSES 

never  knows  where  he  may  come  upon  a  building 
that  will  make  a  notable  addition  to  his  collection. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  only  a  part  of  them 
are  worth  collecting.  Age  may  not  be  the  only  de- 
termining factor  in  the  hunter's  interest.  Without 
a  second  glance,  I  have  passed  many  houses  that 
were  undoubtedly  well  along  toward  the  end  of  their 
second  century.  What  is  the  hunter's  test  for  his 
collection  ?  Naturally,  that  varies  with  the  indi- 
vidual taste  or  special  purpose  of  the  hunter.  Not 
long  ago  I  made  an  excursion  through  a  fruitful 
region  with  an  architect.  Had  time  permitted,  he 
would  have  spent  hours,  with  rule  and  note-book, 
measuring  and  recording  details  of  houses  at  which 
I  did  not  care  to  point  a  camera.  Mere  age  might 
be  the  standard  for  some;  grace  of  line  and  charm 
of  proportion  for  others;  while  for  others,  perhaps 
including  myself,  selection  would  be  determined 
mainly  by  what  may  be  called  the  "picture  quality." 
To  those  of  the  latter  class  appeal  might  be  made 
by  a  house  of  no  particular  architectural  merit,  but 
of  respectable  age,  if  it  stood  under  the  shade  of  a 
sweeping  elm  or  was  flanked  by  noble  maples.  To 
others  the  history  of  a  house  may  be  the  feature 
of  interest.  Did  Washington  or  Lafayette  sleep  in 

[9] 


OLD    NEW    ENGLAND    HOUSES 

it  ?  Was  it  the  birthplace  or  the  sometime  home 
of  a  distinguished  soldier  in  the  Revolutionary  War  ? 
Did  any  notable  person  ever  live  in  it  or  stay  in 
it  ?  Just  that  is  the  charm  of  hunting  for  old  houses. 
The  search  presents  so  many  sides,  so  many  differ- 
ent lines  of  interest.  Not  the  least  of  these  is  in 
being  outdoors  in  a  land  of  hills  and  valleys  and 
running  streams,  of  singing  birds  and  wayside 
flowers. 

How  old  must  a  house  be  to  come  properly  into 
the  class  of  "old  houses"  ?  As  a  rule,  not  less  than 
a  hundred  years.  Of  course,  nothing  in  this  coun- 
try except  the  country  itself  is  really  old.  The 
term  is  distinctly  relative.  The  houses  that  we 
call  "old"  are  old  only  in  comparison  with  those 
of  more  recent  construction.  Asking  for  old  houses 
in  some  neighborhood  then  being  hunted  over,  my 
attention  has  often  been  called  to  houses  built  about 
the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  houses  with 
the  mansard  roof  and  square  tower  that  prevailed 
in  what  has  been  called  the  "Iron  Dog  Period  of 
American  Architecture."  Happily,  most  of  the 
iron  dogs,  the  Dianas,  the  Apollo  Belvederes,  and 
the  other  cast-iron  monstrosities,  at  one  time  sup- 
posed to  be  highly  effective  lawn  decorations,  have 

f  10  1 


OLD    NEW    ENGLAND    HOUSES 

gone  to  the  scrap-heap.  No  hard  and  fast  rule  of 
age  limit  can  be  applied  properly,  but  a  century 
may  be  adopted  as  a  general  standard  for  another 
reason  than  that  of  time.  During  the  latter  part 
of  the  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century  there 
came  a  marked  change  in  public  taste  in  the  matter 
of  architectural  style.  As  that  which  may  be  called 
the  Colonial  period  of  American  architecture  was 
followed  by  the  several  stages  of  Georgian,  so  were 
they,  about  1820,  followed  by  an  enthusiasm  for 
the  Classic.  While  this  is  most  clearly  shown  in  a 
number  of  familiar  public  buildings,  its  influence 
extended  to  private  residences  and  is  easily  recog- 
nized. The  transition  from  the  later  Georgian  to 
the  Classic  produced  some  of  the  best  designs  in  the 
entire  range  of  American  architecture,  represented, 
in  part,  by  the  work  of  such  men  as  Bulfinch  and 
Mclntire.  Following  them,  though  with  more  lean- 
ing to  the  Classic  and  less  to  the  Georgian,  came 
Latrobe,  Hoban,  Strickland,  and  others,  whose 
work  stands  to-day  distinguished  for  its  combina- 
tion of  grace  and  dignity. 

But  all  this  matter  of  styles  and  periods  has 
little  to  do  with  the  homes  in  which  the  great  ma- 
jority of  the  early  New  Englanders  spent  their  lives. 

["1 


OLD    NEW    ENGLAND    HOUSES 

The  extent  of  exterior  decoration,  for  most  of  them, 
went  no  further  than  a  more  or  less  elaborate  front 
doorway,  and  many  had  not  even  that.  Through- 
out New  England  may  be  found  to-day  hundreds 
of  houses,  plain,  one  or  two  story  rectangular  boxes 
with  sloping  covers.  They  vary  in  size,  in  the  pro- 
portions of  height  to  width  in  both  front  and  side 
elevations,  and  in  the  angle  of  the  roof.  "Some  have 
passed  their  second  century — and  show  it.  Many 
are  well  preserved  and,  as  far  as  their  physical  ap- 
pearance is  concerned,  give  no  sign  of  their  antiquity 
except  to  the  trained  eye,  and  even  that  is  some- 
times deceived.  They  are  rejuvenated,  in  outward 
show,  by  shingles,  clapboards,  paint,  new  doors, 
and  new  window-sashes.  Not  infrequently,  they 
look  quite  as  modern  as  their  fifty-year-old  neigh- 
bors. Sometimes,  too,  even  the  fairly  expert  eye 
is  misled  by  a  modern  house  built  in  imitation  of 
an  old  one.  Still  more  deceptive  are  those  that 
have  been  skilfully  restored  during  recent  years. 
For  the  increasing  number  of  these  expert  restora- 
tions, let  us  be  properly  thankful.  They  include 
not  only  recovery  from  dilapidation,  and  even  from 
wreck,  but,  as  well,  the  displacement  of  the  various 
abominations  attached,  notably  within  the  last 

[12] 


OLD    NEW    ENGLAND    HOUSES 

hundred  years,  with  a  lamentably  mistaken  notion 
of  "improving  the  property." 

Brick  and  stone,  for  house-building,  came  into 
use  in  a  limited  way  at  an  early  date.  There  is 
a  fairly  supported  account  of  a  brick  house  built 
in  Boston  in  1638,  and  there  seems  to  be  no  reason 
to  doubt  that  bricks  were  made  in  Salem  as  early 
as  1629,  about  a  year  after  the  arrival  of  Endicott. 
The  two-story  stone  house,  known  as  the  Whit- 
field  house,  in  Guilford,  Conn.,  dates  from  1639. 
This  structure  has  been  bought  by  the  State  and 
"restored."  Somewhat  unfortunately,  perhaps,  its 
restoration  and  the  concealment  of  its  walls  and 
lines  behind  a  mass  of  vines  rob  it  of  the  external 
evidences  of  its  age. 

Many  of  the  old  two-story  houses  show  the 
second-story  "overhang"  that  Doctor  Holmes  said 
was  a  device  that  enabled  the  occupants  of  the  house 
to  shoot  directly  down  at  Indians  who  might  be 
"knocking  at  the  front  door  with  their  tomahawks." 
That  is  a  picturesque  but  quite  inaccurate  explana- 
tion of  that  particular  feature  of  early  New  England 
architecture.  It  may,  at  times,  have  served  for  that 
purpose,  but  it  was,  in  fact,  merely  a  transplanted 
system  of  house  carpentry  common  enough  in  the 

[13] 


OLD    NEW    ENGLAND    HOUSES 

England  from  which  came  the  builders,  who  natu- 
rally followed  in  the  new  land  the  methods  with 
which  they  were  familiar  in  the  old  land.  That 
the  custom  was  of  mechanical  and  not  of  military 
origin  has  been  amply  proven  by  architects  and 
antiquarians.  This  "overhang"  varies  in  width 
but  in  the  majority  of  cases  is  only  a  few  inches. 
Sometimes  it  appears  only  on  the  front  of  the  house, 
the  projection  at  the  rear  being  hidden  by  the  roof 
line  of  the  "lean-to."  Somewhat  less  frequently  it 
appears  at  the  ends  of  the  house  as  well  as  on  the 
front.  Not  infrequently,  on  two-story  houses,  a 
second  "overhang"  appears  at  the  eaves  line  on  the 
end  of  the  house.  Here  and  there  a  house  shows 
a  wide  overhang  ornamented  with  pendants,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  Whitman  house  in  Farmington, 
Conn.,  and  the  Brown  house  in  Hamilton,  Mass. 
The  old  bakery  in  Salem,  the  Porter  house  in  Had- 
ley,  and  a  number  of  others  have  brackets  under 
the  overhang. 

These  old  houses  may  be  divided,  broadly,  into 
four  groups,  the  difference  being  marked  by  the 
roof.  One  group  includes  the  buildings,  whether 
of  one  or  two  stories,  with  sloping  roof  of  equal 
length  in  front  and  back,  mere  rectangular  boxes 

[14] 


OLD    NEW    ENGLAND    HOUSES 

of  varying  size  and  proportions,  with  a  doubly  slop- 
ing cover.  These  are  commonly  known  as  "gable" 
or  "pitch"  roof  houses.  Not  a  few  of  this  type 
show  an  attached  ell,  but  in  most  cases,  if  not  in  all, 
this  is  a  later  addition.  A  second  group  shows  the 
" lean-to"  with  the  extension  of  the  roof  line  in  the 
rear.  While  much  more  common  to  houses  of  two 
stories  in  front,  the  long  back  roof  appears  occa- 
sionally on  houses  of  a  single  story.  A  third  group 
includes  the  "gambrels."  In  his  poem,  "Parson 
Turell's  Legacy,"  Doctor  Holmes  gives  the  origin  of 
the  term: 

"  'Gambrel  ?— Gambrel  ?'     Let  me  beg 
You'll  look  at  a  horse's  hinder  leg, — 
First  great  angle  above  the  hoof, — 
That's  the  gambrel;    hence  gambrel-roof." 

I  am  not  prepared  to  say  whether  this  is  reliable 
information  or  a  product  of  the  genial  autocrat's 
fertile  imagination.  But  old  houses  with  gambrel 
roof  are  abundant  in  New  England.  The  form  is 
used  in  quaint  cottages  and  in  stately  mansions 
like  the  "Dorothy  Q"  house  in  Quincy  and  a  num- 
ber of  others.  The  design  appears  to  have  been 
borrowed  from  the  Dutch,  but  it  was  used  in  New 
England  as  early  as  the  last  quarter  of  the  seven- 

[15] 


OLD    NEW    ENGLAND    HOUSES 

teenth  century.  While  the  use  of  the  dormer-win- 
dow, common  enough  in  the  South,  was  unusual 
in  the  North,  it  is  of  frequent  occurrence  on  houses 
with  the  gambrel  roof,  both  one  and  two  storied. 
But  there  is  a  material  and  not  fully  explained  differ- 
ence between  the  New  England  gambrel  and  its 
prototype.  The  latter  is  quite  the  more  graceful. 
Its  upper  slope  is  much  shorter  and  its  lower  slope 
less  steep  than  is  the  New  England  roof.  While 
grace  is  lost,  the  New  Englander  gained  in  area  of 
headroom  in  what  was,  in  effect,  a  second  story. 
The  fourth  group  consists  of  the  pyramidal  type  or 
"hip"  roof,  usually  square  boxes  with  the  roof  slop- 
ing from  the  four  sides  to  a  common  centre.  This 
also  shows  variations  in  roof  angle  as  related  to  the 
wall  of  the  house.  Also,  while  in  many  cases  the 
four  slopes  met  at  a  central  peak,  or  stopped  at  the 
walls  of  a  large  central  chimney,  in  many  other 
cases  they  terminated  at  the  edge  of  a  flat  platform 
around  which,  frequently  if  not  usually,  a  low  rail- 
ing or  fencing  was  built. 

In  all  of  these  general  groups  there  are  variations 
and  modifications.  There  is  occasionally  found,  in 
the  first  group,  a  variation  that  is  sometimes  called 
the  "sliced  gable"  in  which  the  sharp  angle  of  the 

[16] 


OLD    NEW    ENGLAND    HOUSES 

gable  is  cut  away  diagonally  and  a  short  roof  slope 
takes  its  place.  This  type  belongs  properly  in  the 
hip-roof  class.  I  recall  no  such  exception  in  the 
"lean-to"  group,  but  in  the  other  three  there  are 
variations  in  which  the  upper  part  of  the  roof  would 
seem  to  have  been  cut  away  and  its  place  taken  by 
the  flat  platform,  usually  railed.  This  is  generally 
known  as  the  "captain's  walk."  It  is  most  com- 
mon in  the  coast  cities,  and  its  origin  is  said  to  be 
found  in  the  use  of  the  platform  as  a  lookout  over 
the  harbor  by  shipmasters  or  ship-owners  occupying 
the  house.  Occasionally  one  will  see  a  house,  one 
or  two  storied,  of  the  conventional  sloping-roof  type, 
with  one  or  more  dormer-windows.  It  is  probable, 
however,  that  in  most  cases  these  were  of  later  ad- 
dition. 

One  of  the  variations  in  the  hip-roof  type  ap- 
pears in  what  is  sometimes  called  the  "monitor," 
a  windowed  superstructure  of  much  too  great  an 
area  to  be  regarded  as  a  cupola.  A  variation  of 
the  gable  roof  is  occasionally  encountered  in  south- 
eastern Massachusetts.  It  is  known  as  the  "rain- 
bow." The  roof,  from  ridge-pole  to  eaves,  instead 
of  following  a  straight  line,  is  slightly  convex,  thus 
making  a  few  additional  inches  of  headroom  inside. 

[17] 


OLD    NEW    ENGLAND    HOUSES 

An  interesting  variation  of  type,  unusual  rather 
than  rare,  is  the  so-called  "jut-by,"  in  which  the 
rear  half  of  the  house,  sometimes  of  gable  type  and 
sometimes  of  the  gambrel,  extends  several  feet  be- 
yond the  front  half. 

In  most  of  the  books  dealing  with  early  Ameri- 
can architecture  there  appears  an  effort  to  classify 
the  structures  by  periods.  To  most  of  us  any  house 
a  hundred  or  more  years  old  is  "Colonial,"  and  any 
house  of  later  date,  if  it  has  an  ornamental  doorway, 
or  columns  or  pilasters  from  ground  to  eaves,  is  of 
"Colonial"  design.  Some  specialists  employ  a  spe- 
cific political  grouping,  thus:  the  Colonial,  from  the 
beginning  until  1692;  the  Provincial,  from  1692 
until  the  Revolution;  and  the  Federal,  from  that 
time  until  the  Classic  period,  about  1820.  Others 
divide  by  groups  marked  by  distinct  features  of 
technical  details.  Still  others  use,  broadly:  the 
Colonial  from  the  beginning  until  the  Revolution; 
then  the  Georgian  until  the  Classic.  For  all  the 
purposes  of  that  vast  majority  of  the  inexpert,  it 
seems  to  me  desirable  only  that  we  do  not  confuse 
the  Colonial  type  with  the  Georgian,  and  there  is 
no  date  at  which  we  may  fix,  even  approximately, 
a  dividing  line.  The  strictly  Colonial  type,  repre- 


OLD    NEW    ENGLAND    HOUSES 

sented  by  all  except  a  very  small  number  of  the 
houses  of  the  seventeenth  century,  persisted  through- 
out the  eighteenth  and  well  into  the  nineteenth.  It 
was  the  oblong  building,  of  one  or  two  stories,  with 
gable  roof,  with  or  without  the  lean-to.  It  was  of 
the  utmost  simplicity.  Very  few  of  the  seven- 
teenth-century houses  had  even  an  ornamental 
doorway.  The  porch,  portico,  veranda,  and  bay 
window  were  all  devices  of  a  much  later  period. 
Few,  if  any,  were  even  painted. 

The  so-called  Georgian  period  had  its  beginning, 
broadly,  about  the  end  of  the  first  quarter  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  Although  the  French,  from 
Canada,  with  their  Indian  allies  raided  York,  Maine, 
in  1691,  Haverhill  in  1697  and  again  in  1708,  and 
Deerfield  in  1704,  while  in  1675  and  1676  the  Wam- 
panoags  and  the  Narragansetts  swept  through  Mas- 
sachusetts, leaving  thirteen  towns  in  ashes,  and 
bringing  fire  and  slaughter  to  forty  other  towns,  it 
was  felt  that  there  was  no  longer  serious  danger  of 
further  attack,  particularly  in  the  larger  coast 
towns.  By  that  time,  also,  there  were  a  consider- 
able number  of  men  who  were,  for  their  time, 
wealthy.  Such,  naturally,  desired  something  more 
commodious  and  more  ornate  in  the  matter  of  resi- 

[19] 


OLD    NEW    ENGLAND    HOUSES 

dences.  To  that  the  simple  Colonial  type  did  not 
readily  lend  itself.  My  investigations  lead  me  to 
a  belief  that  elaboration  in  house  architecture  began 
with  gambrel-roofed  houses  of  much  larger  size  than 
those  formerly  erected,  and  that  this  was  followed 
by  and  largely  gave  place  to  the  imposing  and  digni- 
fied "three-deckers"  of  Salem,  Portsmouth,  Portland, 
and  Providence,  where  the  best  types  of  Georgian 
architecture  in  New  England  are  to  be  found.  A 
few  good  examples  can  be  seen  elsewhere,  but  there 
is  nothing  better  than  those  in  the  cities  mentioned. 
In  referring  to  houses  of  the  strictly  Colonial 
type,  I  have  once  or  twice  used  the  term  "rectangu- 
lar boxes  with  variously  sloping  covers."  They 
were  no  more  than  that.  Wherein,  then,  lies  their 
charm  ?  for  charm  they  undoubtedly  have  in  many 
cases.  It  is  to  be  sought  in  two  directions,  in  accu- 
racy of  proportions  and  in  the  setting  of  the  house. 
The  proportions  are  determined  by  an  almost  exact 
relation  of  height  to  width  and  of  relation  of  door 
and  window  openings  to  each  other  and  to  the 
house  as  a  whole.  A  proper  adjustment  of  height 
to  width  was  possible  because  the  occupants  were 
content  with  low  ceilings.  High  ceilings  came  some- 
what later  in  the  cities  and  still  later  in  the  country, 

[20! 


OLD    NEW    ENGLAND    HOUSES 

but  they  came  in  larger  houses  in  which  the  relation 
of  height  to  width  could  be  and  was  maintained. 
No  finer  proportions  in  house  construction  can  be 
found  than  those  of  many  an  old  "three-decker"  in 
Salem,  Providence,  and  elsewhere,  or  in  stately 
gambrel-roofed  houses  that  may  be  seen  scattered 
through  the  country.  The  old-time  cottages  were 
low,  measuring  from  ground  to  eaves,  but  they  sug- 
gest coseyness  and  comfort  rather  than  "squatti- 
ness."  Put  one  of  those  little  houses  under  an 
overshadowing  elm,  run  a  vine  about  its  entrance, 
plant  a  few  shrubs  and  flowers  in  its  front  yard, 
and  it  nestles  there  challenging  attention  and  ad- 
miration. The  elms  and  the  maples,  as  external 
house  decorations,  supplemented  by  roses  and  lilacs, 
are  distinct  features  in  the  New  England  landscape. 
In  a  class  quite  distinct  from  that  referred  to 
in  the  foregoing  comment  stand  the  more  imposing 
houses,  the  best  types  of  which  are  to  be  found  in 
or  not  far  from  the  coast  cities.  Among  those  who 
came  to  the  new  land  were  some  who,  for  the  period, 
might  be  regarded  as  rich.  They  and  others  made 
money  after  they  came.  They  were,  most  of  them, 
ship-builders,  ship-owners,  and  merchants  engaged 
in  oversea  commerce.  In  the  last  quarter  of  the 

[21] 


OLD    NEW    ENGLAND    HOUSES 

seventeenth  century  a  few  of  these  wealthy  citizens 
built  houses  on  what  was  then,  in  this  country,  a 
colossal  scale.  All,  I  believe,  are  now  gone,  but 
they  were  represented  by  such  houses  as  that  built 
in  Boston  in  1679  by  Peter  Sergeant,  merchant. 
The  building  was  afterward  known  as  the  Province 
House,  having  been  bought  in  1716  by  the  Province 
of  Massachusetts  Bay  as  an  official  residence  for 
the  royal  governors.*  Years  afterward  it  became 
a  tavern  and  later  on  a  theatre.  Others  of  this 
class  were  the  Cotton  Mather  house  on  Hanover 
Street  and  the  Foster-Hutchinson  house  on  Garden 
Court.  All  of  these  were  in  Boston. 

At  the  end  of  the  first  hundred  years  of  settle- 
ment and  activity  there  were  in  New  England  a 
considerable  number  of  men  possessed  of  substan- 
tial fortunes.  Others  were  rapidly  acquiring  for- 
tunes. Some  of  them  did  as  do  men  of  wealth  to- 
day— they  built  large  and  more  or  less  elaborately 
ornate  houses.  Andrew  Faneuil  built  one  in  Boston 
in  1709,  and  in  the  same  place  William  Clark  built 
about  the  year  1713  and  Thomas  Hancock  built  in 
1737.  All  of  these  are  gone.  Survivals  of  the  period, 
however,  may  be  found  in  the  Dummer  house  (1715) 

*  See  Hawthorne's  Legends  of  the  Province  House. 
\22] 


OLD    NEW    ENGLAND    HOUSES 

in  Byfield,  the  Warner  house  (1723)  in  Portsmouth, 
and  the  Royall  house  (1732)  in  Medford.  Most  of 
the  houses  of  this  class  were  three-storied,  flat-topped 
structures  if  in  the  city,  while  those  in  the  country 
were  largely  of  the  two-storied  and  gambrel-roofed 
type.  But  the  gable  roof,  as  shown  by  the  Dum- 
mer  house,  was  also  represented.  More  and  more 
of  the  "mansion  houses"  came  in  the  last  half  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  and  many  remain  for  our 
admiration  to-day. 

Not  all  of  these  "mansion"  or  "semi-mansion" 
houses  were  built  of  brick,  nor  were  all  located  in 
the  coast  cities.  There  were  three-story  wooden 
houses  and,  of  the  same  material,  large  two-story 
houses  surmounted  by  gambrel  roofs  with  dormer- 
windows.  In  the  latter  group  are  several  houses  in 
Litchfield,  the  Ropes  house  in  Salem,  the  Dickinson 
house  in  Hadley,  and  numerous  others  variously 
located.  As  already  stated,  the  best  in  American 
house  architecture  remains  from  the  successive  stages 
of  the  so-called  Georgian  period.  But  it  is  repre- 
sented only  in  part  by  the  "mansion"  type  and 
only  in  part  by  the  buildings  along  the  coast.  The 
inland  cities  and  towns  have  their  many  homes  of 
a  comfortable,  well-to-do  group  of  farmers  and 

[23] 


OLD    NEW    ENGLAND    HOUSES 

traders.  I  know  of  no  larger  or  better  field  for 
buildings  of  this  class  than  the  Naugatuck  valley, 
in  Connecticut,  and  its  immediate  neighborhood. 
There  were  still  the  many  who  built  their  little  one- 
story  houses  with  gable  roof  or  gambrel  and  others 
who  could  afford  a  larger  house,  plain  and  substan- 
tial, usually  of  timber  construction,  although  stone 
or  brick  structures  are  not  infrequent. 

Broadly,  then,  the  era  of  development  in  Amer- 
ican architecture  had  its  beginning  in  the  early  years 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  Prior  to  that  the  type 
was  simple  and  the  building  plain.  The  develop- 
ment was  slow  in  its  beginning,  here  and  there  a 
house  that  exceeded  its  neighbors  in  size  and  in 
the  building  of  which  some  attention  was  given  to 
ornamentation  by  doorway  and  window  trim.  The 
change  from  the  simple  type  of  the  seventeenth 
century  had  its  origin  at  the  top.  A  wealthy  man 
built  a  mansion.  His  well-to-do  neighbor  followed 
and  built  according  to  his  means.  A  pace  was  set 
for  all  classes.  The  much  greater  wealth  and  the 
greater  number  of  the  wealthy  made  possible  in  the 
last  half  and  more  particularly  in  the  last  quarter 
of  the  eighteenth  century  and  the  early  years  of 
the  nineteenth  the  erection  of  houses  that  in  grace 

[24] 


and  grandeur  somewhat  overshadowed  the  efforts  of 
the  earlier  generations.  As  the  Dummer  house  and 
the  Warner  house  outclassed  their  neighbors  in 
their  day,  so  the  Dodge-Shreve  (1817)  and  the 
Andrew-Safford  (1818)  houses  in  Salem,  the  Ives 
(1799)  and  the  Gammell  (1786)  houses  in  Provi- 
dence, the  Lee  house  in  Marblehead,  and  various 
others,  outclassed  the  Dummer  and  the  Warner 
buildings.  Architecturally,  there  was  an  upward 
movement  all  through  the  eighteenth  century.  Yet, 
while  we  may  look  with  all  respect  and  admiration 
upon  the  stately  mansions  of  Salem,  Providence, 
and  other  cities,  it  is,  after  all,  the  old-time  house 
or  cottage,  with  its  bit  of  shrubbery  and  garden  and 
its  flanking  elms  and  maples,  that  most  pleases  our 
eyes  and  most  warms  our  hearts. 

Every  old  house  has  its  history.  In  most  cases 
it  is  not  a  history  of  public  men  or  public  events. 
It  is  only  a  record  of  generation  after  generation  of 
simple  human  lives  with  their  joys  and  sorrows, 
their  little  romances  and  little  tragedies.  Probably, 
few  of  us  ever  see  the  inside  of  these  old  houses. 
Usually,  in  a  quiet  and  unostentatious  fashion,  the 
occupants  are  very  proud  of  their  possessions. 
Often  the  house  has  been  kept  in  the  family  gene- 

[25] 


OLD    NEW    ENGLAND    HOUSES 

ration  after  generation,  each  adding  to  the  collec- 
tion of  furniture,  crockery,  silverware  and  pew- 
ter, portraits  and  house  equipment.  My  evident 
interest  in  the  outside  of  some  old  house  has  re- 
peatedly led  to  an  invitation  to  inspect  its  interior, 
and  many  a  pleasant  hour  has  been  so  spent.  Not 
infrequently  the  elaborate  beauty  of  an  interior 
trim,  of  mantels  and  door-casing,  does  not  corre- 
spond with  the  simplicity  of  the  exterior.  Writing 
upon  that  point,  an  observer  has  declared  that  this 
lack  of  correspondence  between  the  external  and 
the  internal  "reflects  the  outward  reserve  and  re- 
straint of  New  England  character,  a  reserve,  how- 
ever, that  often  melts  into  cordial  geniality  under 
the  favoring  auspices  of  a  close  acquaintance."  I 
recall  a  delightful  hour  with  a  dear  old  soul,  of 
perhaps  seventy-five  years  of  age,  who,  somewhat 
stiffly  at  first,  asked  me  to  come  in.  In  a  few 
minutes  she  had  warmed  herself  and  roused  me 
to  a  fair  pitch  of  enthusiasm  over  her  old  house, 
with  furniture  that  had  come  down  from  father, 
grandfather,  and  great-grandfather,  with  old  family 
portraits,  with  mantels  of  beautiful  design  and  carv- 
ing, and  a  general  assortment  of  old,  family  trea- 
sures. So  do  I  recall  another  delightful  hour  with 

[26! 


OLD    NEW    ENGLAND    HOUSES 

a  charming  young  chatelaine  whose  house,  with  all 
its  contents,  including  herself,  I  would  gladly  have 
carried  away  bodily  had  it  been  possible. 

Too  frequently  the  old  equipment  of  the  old 
house  is  divided  among  heirs,  until  the  place  is  al- 
most stripped  and  the  rooms  left  bare  and  desolate, 
tenanted,  perhaps,  only  by  a  maiden  aunt  or  by 
some  thriftless  descendant  with  a  dowdy  wife.  This 
stripping  by  division  is  common  enough,  but  the 
occupants  of  the  country  houses  are  usually  of  good 
New  England  stock,  and  there  is  at  least  comfort 
and  an  air  of  home  in  the  best  meaning  of  the  word. 
A  few  potted  plants  on  the  window-sill,  and  a  cat 
of  the  kind  described  by  Mark  Twain,  in  Pudd'n- 
head  Wilson,  as  "a  well-fed,  well-petted,  and  prop- 
erly revered  cat,"  are  simple  but  effective  contri- 
butions to  the  making  of  a  country  home.  The 
value  of  the  cat,  as  a  feature  in  home-making,  is 
enhanced  if  there  is  a  braided  rug  for  it  to  lie  upon 
in  front  of  the  fireplace.  Somehow,  the  braided 
rug,  made  from  cast-off  garments,  seems  to  fit  ad- 
mirably into  the  scheme  of  the  interior  of  the  old- 
time  house,  although  it  usually  looks  out  of  place 
elsewhere.  It  harmonizes  with  its  environment  and 
so  fulfils  a  fundamental  law  of  decoration. 

[27] 


OLD    NEW    ENGLAND    HOUSES 

It  is  to  the  taste  and  skill  of  carpenters,  rather 
than  to  architects,  that  we  are  indebted  for  the  grace 
and  the  charm  of  these  old-time  dwellings.  Mr. 
Eberlein,  an  architect-author,  in  his  book  on  The 
Architecture  of  Colonial  America,  says  of  them  that 
"we  shall  not  be  far  wrong  in  ascribing  seventeenth- 
century  buildings,  almost  without  exception,  to  the 
capable  and  resourceful  craftsman  who  not  only 
preserved  conscientiously  the  traditions  he  had 
learned  as  an  apprentice  or  journeyman  in  the 
mother  country,  and  faithfully  perpetuated  them 
by  his  practice  as  a  master  carpenter  or  joiner  in 
a  new  land,  but  also  showed  himself  possessed  of 
ready  wit  and  keen  perceptive  faculties  by  the 
alacrity  with  which  he  modified  and  adapted  tradi- 
tional methods  and  precedents  to  new  conditions 
and  requirements  of  climate  and  environment. 
Furthermore,  these  early  workmen  showed  an  all- 
round  mastery  of  their  craft.  They  respected  their 
calling  and  took  a  proper  pride  in  the  excellence 
of  their  craftsmanship.  Hence,  the  work  of  their 
hands,  however  plain  and  simple,  still  possesses  a 
dignity  and  honest  beauty  that  plainly  proclaim 
how  they  put  their  hearts  into  what  they  were  doing 

[28] 


OLD    NEW    ENGLAND    HOUSES 

and,  at  the  same  time,  commands  our  reverence 
and  admiration." 

Of  the  same  class  in  the  eighteenth  century,  to 
whom  we  owe  much  of  the  work  of  that  period,  the 
same  writer  says:  'The  master  carpenter  of  the 
eighteenth  century  was  infinitely  more  capable  than 
the  average  artisan  of  like  rank  to-day.  He  was 
not  only  a  skilled  master  mechanic,  competent  to 
translate  rough  drafts  and  sketches  into  carefully 
prepared  working  drawings,  but  he  was  also  a  per- 
son of  some  architectural  education  and  taste  and 
endowed  with  a  nice  perception  of  architectural 
merits  and  proprieties." 

These  were  the  men  who,  for  the  first  two  hun- 
dred years  of  life  in  New  England,  built  the  homes 
of  the  people.  Little  of  their  work  remains  in  the 
cities,  but  much  still  stands  in  the  villages  and  in 
country  regions,  monuments  to  an  instructive  past 
and  charming  features  in  a  picturesque  landscape. 


29 


PLATES 


Providence,  Rhode  Island 


Ives  House,  J799 


Providence,  Rhode  Island 


Gammell  House,  1786 


Lexington,  Massachusetts.     The  house  in  which  Samuel  Adams  and  John  Hancock  were 
asleep  when  aroused  by  Paul  Revere 


Portland,  Maine 


fe; 


fe; 


.X 

j£ 


s 

K 


Clinton,  Connecticut,  1789 


8 

a 


1X3 


Chelmsford,  Massachusetts 


Middlesex  County,  Massachusetts 


Laommi  Baldwin  House 


Hartley,  Massachusetts 


Porter  House,  1713 


Pembroke,  Massachusetts, 


Wells,  Maine 


Danvers,  Massachusetts 


Rebecca  Nours-e  House,  i6j6,Jront 


Danvers,  Massachusetts 


Rebecca  Nourse  House.  1636,  rear 


Lincoln,  Massachusetts 


Hartwell  House,  1639 


Southampton,  Massachusetts 


South  Windsor,  Connecticut 


Westminster,  Massachusetts 


Georgetown,  Massachusetts 


Deerfield,  Massachusetts 


Nims  House,  north  end  and  west  front 


Deerfield,  Massachusetts 


Nims  House,  rear  from  the  southeast 


Deer  field,  Massachusetts 


Allen  House,  south  end 


Samson-Frary  House,  west  front 


Deerfield,  Massachusetts 


Samson-Frary  House,  south  front 


Ipswich,  Massachusetts 


Groton,  Massachusetts 


Nezvbury,  M as sachu setts 


Tappan  House,  1697,  south  front 


Newbury,  Massachusetts 


Tappan  House,  1697,  west  end. 


West-port,  Massachusetts 


Georgetown,  Massachusetts 


Fryeburg,  Maine 


Stratford,  New  Hampshire 


Lyme,  Connecticut 


L 


New  Bedford,  Massachusetts 


South  Windsor,  Connecticut 


Southampton,  Massachusetts 


Madison,  Connecticut 


East  front 


Madison,  Connecticut 


South  front 


IVoodbury,  Connecticut 


Middlebury,  Connecticut 


Niantic,  Connecticut 


Lee  House,  west  end 


Niantic,  Connecticut 


Lee  House,  east  end 


Essex,  Connecticut 


South  end 


Essex,  Connecticut 


West  front 


By  field,  Massachusetts 


Dummer  House,  1715 


Bf  ••wmnlr-illtH 

••II 


liillBi 


East  Windsor  Hill,  Connecticut 


Southington,  Connecticut 


Brockelbank  House 


A     000045518 


